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He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you. Ancient Terran Philosopher. Part I:Precipice of the Abyss Act I: Homecoming  Hotel Matillian Hive Sibellus, Sector Capital, Planet of Scintilla The Hotel Matillian, located on the northern side of Hive Sibellus, is known as a hotel that caters to off planet interests looking for a discrete place to stay; usually traders who have brought confidential information with them. Each Room is built on the side of the hive. They each have their own landing pad, and the only entrance to the suites is from that pad. House keeping only cleans rooms after guests have checked out, and each room has a myriad of electronic shielding, from copper in the walls to exterior zone of Silence generators. In short, the perfect location to stay if you are trying to hide the existence of a daemonhost from anyone. Said daemonhost is in the other room. For now, the six of you are meeting with Inquisitor Whitehall in the large suite's kitchen.  She looks at those around her, her face as cold as ever. It was never any secret that she never felt any close connection with any of you. You were always Banca's team of Acolytes, not hers. As such it creates a strange relationship, in which you are the people she trusts most, but she typically does not share her plans until you arrive at your destination, and Scintilla was one hell of a destination. Ever since Xanaroch took up residence with Banca, the sector capital had been avoided at all costs. it has the most security of any planet in the sector, as well as being home to the Inquisition in the sector. Truly to bring a daemonhost to this world is an insane prospect. Sipping some tea, Inquisitor Whitehall turns to the six of you. "Okay everyone, our mission here is two fold. First, that daemon has indicated that there is a Chaos cult on this world. It says up in Gunmetal City she has detected a strong psyker enacting rituals to Nurgle. She can't pinpoint where the psyker is, but she knows that the rituals are more than just the psyker, that there is some sort of cult. Maybe it is among the nobles of Gunmetal, perhaps a cult has built up among the working class, or it could even be a perversion of the Imperial Creed or the Adeptus Mechanicus Overseers. You have proven very adept at sniffing these cults out in the past, so by all means, feel free to act as you will. If you wish to interrogate the daemon more, then go ahead, though it has not been forthcoming." She then remains silent for a couple minutes, as if actively debating whether or not to even mention the next part to the group. She finally decides she will, but speaks in a hushed tone. "Meanwhile, I am going to the Tricorn to dig up information on another Inquisitor. This Inquisitor has spent a lot of time dealing with daemonhosts. The binding ritual the cultists used is unique While Xanaroch is Thrice bound in Banca's body, making it weak, every ritual used to try and break the binding and expel the daemon has been unsuccessful. The binding ritual not only keeps the daemon in, but keeps others out as well." Whitehall finishes her tea, "Don't share anything about my mission with that damned creature. I have brought up this Inquisitor to her before, and the daemon has been evasive every time. I think it knows that this Inquisitor likely holds information that could break the binding and expel it, and that scares it." Okay, welcome to the game. I am using a method I have used before, where like an old adventure game, I underline potential important information and lines of inquiry. Your first step is to determine which of those Imperial organizations or groups you are going to investigate first. Don't worry if you pick the wrong one; If you do and are successful investigating, some clue pointing you in the right direction will appear. If any of you wish to interact with Xanaroch you may. I did roll up the Daemonhost using the rules in Dark heresy 2's Enemies Beyond book, though I will not be sharing those stats with you.
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Jun 26, 2016 16:10
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Second post for house rules and misc stuff House rules: 1. You do not need to meet the fellowship requirement to take a Minion of Chaos talent. You still need minimum Infamy, and the Loyalty mechanics work as usual. 2. If you are a psyker dedicated to Nurgle, you may use toughness to manifest psyker powers if you wish. This is because Willpower is from an opposed god, so the game actively punishes you for being a Nurgle Psyker. 3. Jam rules RAW is dumb. If you get a jam on an SP, bolt, or other similar weapons that fires physical projectiles(bows, grenade launchers, etc), you don't loose the whole clip, you have to reload. Any other weapons like las, flame, plasma, melta, etc do loose the whole clip, since it is likely something wrong with the fuel tank/flask/power cell going bad. 4. If you get a mutation while unaligned that has an additional modifier if you are aligned (for example eye of chaos) and you then later align, you gain the benefit of the alignment. This could cause your mutations to wildly change upon alignment as your new patron god reshapes you. Werix fucked around with this message at 19:42 on Jan 13, 2017 |
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Jun 26, 2016 16:12
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Okay, so far we have: Waci: Mechanicus Jolinaxas: workers or nobles Viva: Eclisiarchy Dachshund: workers Firesight: Uh, workers? Is that what you mean by hospice? So it looks like workers are winning, and even if ferrosol posts, it won't change the vote. i'm not in the mood to be splitting the part right off the bat, so where one goes, you all go for now. Though if one of the others feels really impassioned about another route, then feel free to try and convince the others. Once Ferrosol checks in, we'll move on.
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Jun 27, 2016 06:02
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Whitehall nods, "Well then, if you are all ready to go, there is a hover car out on the landing pad. It'll be a tight fight, but you should all fit in there." Every one looks at the door leading to one of the back rooms. They all know that Xanaroch is in there. They all also know that the room has been warded with a plethora of wards, keeping the daemon in place, and even stopping it from speaking. A Daemon Prince could be on the other side of the door, and Xanaroch wouldn't be able to call out for help. The Inquisitor has gotten very good at keeping the daemon at bay, which is illustrated by the fact that they were going to leave it there alone. The group makes their way to the private landing pad on the outside of the suite, where there are two hover cars. The acolytes enter the hovercar that their key opens, and spends the next few hours flying to Gunmetal City. Finally, after the flight, the group finds itself descending upon the city.  Gunmetal City. Hub of firearms in the Calixis Sector. The city is built upon an active volcano, all the better to harness nature to craft firearms. As the car descends into the crater, three sounds are constant: the sound of metal shaping metal, the yells of foremen at menials, and the ever present sound of guns. The hover car descends down to the worker hab blocks, down in the sweltering crater, below the warehouses, but above the smelting forges. Finding a public parking ramp, the acolytes step out into the heat. Immediately three ideas of where to go come to mind. Pancracius's plan to visit Hospitalier Hospices is a good plan, if Nurgle is involved, surely they would have seen something. Another potential lead would be to head into the hab-blocks themselves. It is surprising how easy it is to pry information from strangers in the street, plus there might be notices of meetings that are fronts for the cult. One last potential plan would be to try and find some of the Hab overseers. Even away from the factorums the various gun manufacturing noble houses keep an eye on the workers, since the hab blocks are owned by the company. The overseers might have good information, but might be the least cooperative. Okay, I have presented you three potential areas of inquiry. Here you may feel free to split up if you want to. You'll be trying to gather information here. This isn't Dark Heresy, this is Black Crusade. So while i will have skill tests I'm not going to go "you don't have Scholastic Lore (judgement) you get nothing. Now you might still fail your skill tests and get little information. This is here in part to get some of that "day in the life of a corrupt Inquisitorial Acolyte" taste. I also emphasize corrupt. Feel free to be as corrupt as you feel your character wants to me. Some of you might be embracing your eventual fate more than others.
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Jun 29, 2016 02:28
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Workman's quarters: Half of the group decide to head into the hab quarters of the various workers. Lash and Cully try to ask around the various different locations workers gather during what little off time they get, while Rodan tries his hand at some psychic scrying. Besides finding a scum bar with a rather talented singer, Cully doesn't bring up much. Lash has no luck either. The locals can clearly tell that she isn't from around here, and while they don't know what she's up too, they know she is trying to take advantage of them. (Cully rolls above influence and gets nothing. Lash rolls an 84, and the locals roll a 08 vs their 30 WP, so they see through her charm.) Rodan meanwhile, has some luck. While he cannot find any evidence of any psykers roaming about, he does happen to get some very minor psychic readings off of some pamphlets. Not enough for him to think there is anything warp related about the pamphlets and fliers, but more like psychic residue from them having been in a location with a strong psychic presence. The Fliers are for a Hab 87's Benevolent Pooling Association. The Flier contains information on the Association, which professes to be an Association Hab workers are invited to join. Each worker is expected to kick in part of their ration cards each meeting, but then the association splits those pooled card among those members in need, such as when someone gets hurt on the job and can't provide for themselves or their family. Our Sister of Perpetual Grace hospice Tess and Pancracius try to find a Hospice, and they indeed find one, the Our Sister of Perpetual Grace, a Hospice run by the Order Hospitaller. The Hospice is mostly full of the elderly and gravely wounded, with little more than the Words of the Emperor to act as a palliative. A quick glance among the dying does not seem to reveal any sort of sickness among the group. They do eventually stumble upon a Sister Margaret, the lone Hospitaller overseeing the Hospice. Pancracius give the lady a kind smile and asks if she had seen anything of note as it comes to sickness. She shares a story about how a month ago some workers who had collapsed at the job site had been brought in. The men and women were too sick to even move, and given the swollen skin they had, they should have been in great pain, but none of them had complained. They had been there barely an hour when a Ugnatious Bern, some workers' rights advocate came in with some men and removed the workers in questions. Unfortunately the Hospice isn't really a clinic, so Sister Margaret did not have a chance to take any samples from the ill workers. Overseers: Jenny makes her way to the overseers, and easily talks her way in to see them. The Overseers are more than happy to see Jenny and to offer assistance, mainly because they are overworked. When she begins asking about worker behavior and any strange congregations, they throw every file they have as it relates to Worker Associations and rabble-rousing individuals. Reunited: The group gather back together after gathering their intelligence to share and compare what they have. Right away Pancracius makes a breakthrough. While reviewing the Pamphlet Rodan collected, he quickly sees some of the letters in the information are in a slightly different font from the rest. Copying out the letters leads to a cipher, though a rather easy one he can decode; the cipher was likely kept simple so workers could easily figure it out. The words speak of something much more sinister. That those who are in charge care nothing for the workers, and so the workers must gather together and find the strongest among them and bind them in blood. Only then will they be able to rise up against their masters and demand their rightful due. The cipher also contains the location of a meeting in an abandoned warehouse, which seems to occur at the same time every week. It just so happens the meeting is tonight. With all the files that Jenny was given, they are able to easily find information on Ugnatious Bern. Seems Ugnatious has always been a trouble maker, having always spoken about the treatment of workers. He was put on a ban list by the overseers; he was not allowed to work in any of the forges, and had an arrest on sight warrant on him for anti-production activities with the local enforcers. His exact current whereabouts were unknown, but he tended to call the abandoned warehouse district his home; the same district the meeting is happening at. The way forward is clear, the acolytes make their way to the abandoned warehouse district. Abandoned warehouse district: It quickly becomes clear why this district is abandoned. It is near the bottom of the city, and much of the flooring has given away. One wrong step would send one plummeting down into the volcano below, and the usual sounds are punctuated with the sounds of whole buildings finally giving way to gravity and falling into the orange abyss below. The group make their way to the warehouse in question, and give it a quick lookover. At the front, two guards with bolt pistols and primitive weapons guard the loading docks, stopping workers who approach, giving them a pat down and letting some inside. Any of them that fail their pat down are turned away. A quick look around the side reveals a side door. It appears unguarded, but if one were spotted by the side entrance, they would be caught in the open. Okay, thankfully there was some logic among your group. Otherwise you would have had to track down Bern and interrogate him for the cipher. With Cipher in hand, you are able to easily find the location where some secret cult is meeting. You have to potential methods of ingress: 1. The front door. There are two guards watching it. You might be able to talk your way in, though you would still have to pass a pat down to get anything inside. There are also only two of them. There is enough cover on the street that you could engage them; though that would tip off whomever is inside. 2. There is a side door. Doesn't look guarded, but the approach is out in the open. May also be locked. Only way to know is for someone to approach it. So essentially decide if you desire to: 1. Try to talk your way in 2. shoot your way in, 3. sneak your way in.
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Jul 4, 2016 19:34
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Inside(?) the Cultist Meeting Rodan leaves behind all of his weapons and makes his way to the small line of workers waiting to get into the warehouse. It doesn't take the guards too long to make their way through the small queue, and make their way to Rodan. Even without the armor a guy with chromed legs and flak armor gets their attention. One of them keeps their gun on Rodan while the other one gives the psyker a pat down. Not finding any weapons, the two guards stare at each other for a long second before they start talking to each other. Guard 1: "Well were there weapons?" Guard 2: "No, but well look at him. Guy's got cyber legs and guard armor. When did you last see a worker with guard armor and cyber legs?' G1: "Yeah, but we were told to turn away anyone with weapons. Weren't told nothing about turning away guys with cybernetics and armor." G2: "Well yeah, but this can't be right. Guy obviously doesn't belong here." G1: "This place is cocking hot, and could fall into lava any moment, none of us belong here. Guy might be some awesome arsehole and help us out. Let the folks inside figure out if he is a danger." With that the guards wave Rodan in. He enters into the warehouse through one of the old shipping doors, and finds himself behind a large crowd of people. In the center of the room is a platform suspended above a hole in the floor above a large drop to the volcano below. On the platform is a woman, who is preaching to the crowd, "For generations we have toiled, built weapons for others to use in killing yet more others! And instead of sharing the wealth that comes from these implements, they keep it, while we toil, and die and starve to death! To stop us from banding together they develop their 'Gunmetal gunslinger culture' where it is encouraged to to fight for 'glory' among ourselves. We literally make the guns that we use to kill each other!" Many in the crowd are nodding their heads, and the Apostate takes her chance, "But no longer! Look to my guards around me! We have been pilfering their equipment, stockpiling it. We take the equipment they say is malfunctioning and we restore it and the machine spirit inside! Soon we will build an army they cannot resist, and we will take what we have worked hard for by force! Those who wish to join me, begin to line up over there!" A quick glance at the equipment and Rodan knows she is right. These guards all have on old worn flak vests that have old Guard unit identifiers scratched off. Each one has a full bolter, along with auto pistols and chain blades at their waists. The Apostate continues from her pulpit while some workers start to break off and line up. Rodan can see some old offices in the corner, roughly where the side door should be, but he'll have to get past the guards to get at it.  Red Star is the Apostate Red diamonds guards brown blobs are workers. How does Rodan proceed? Will update once dachshund posts, don't want to keep everyone else waiting long on him.
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Jul 12, 2016 02:27
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End of the Meeting As Rodan approaches, the guards become suspicious, but they keep their weapons at bay, since Rodan could have just been another convert waiting for the ritual to begin. Of course that all ends when he starts sputtering off non-sense and gripping his head. The commotion is enough to startle the Apostate, who begins to flee with her two guards towards the offices. The two guards near the door start firing their auto pistols in the air, which causes the crowd to disperse, and all the workers start running from the warehouse quickly, along with the two guards nearest the old loading doors. The two guards that Rodan tried to push his way past raise their bolters. "Move and we shoot!" Outside: Everyone waiting up front for Rodan to open the side door jump when they hear the sound of gunfire, and then a huge crown of workers streaming out of the warehouse. Behind the workers two cultist carrying bolters and wearing a flak vest come out and start pointing at the guards with the pistols and yelling orders at them. Okay, so inside: Rodan please give me initiative and an action. The two guards closes you have delayed actions for semi auto bursts if you at all move. Remember, it is still an opposed agility test for who goes first, so you might act quicker than them. The apostate and two guards have used run actions this initial turn. For everyone outside, I do not need initiative yet, but you better quickly figure out how you're going to handle the situation. Oh, also for those who haven't played with me before/ in a while. I am now allowing players to roll their rolls in combat, namely their to hit rolls. If you want to roll damage you may, but your enemies might succeed on their reactions, so if you would rather me roll damage that's fine, just make sure your combat block is up to date with listed weapon damage. I typically roll your reactions (dodge and parry) when I am rolling enemy dice, so also make sure those are in your combat block. I typically roll physical dice at my desk here because it is quicker, and it lets me fudge dice rolls that go horribly wrong.  Blue four pointed star is Rodan
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Jul 12, 2016 04:11
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Warehouse Showdown The situation in the warehouse goes from bad to worse, as not only is Rodan caught weaponless, but the apostate and her guards seem to be quicker on the uptake than the augmented assassin. The Apostate and her two guards continue on and almost make it across the bridge over troubled lava, while the two guards who have Rodan under cover move closer to him ordering him onto his knees. Instead of going down on his knees however, Rodan has other plans. Thankfully, unless he summons a phenomena, the use of psyker abilities don't require the waving of hands and the speaking of magic words, so the guards don't notice the tear in reality until one of them gets pulled off his feet and dragged into the vortex. The other one manages to stay on his feet, and lets out a quick triple squeeze of his bolter, yet even at point blank range, not one shell connects. Meanwhile the rest of the group stacks up on the door. Tess breaches it, and the group moves in on a deserted managers office, empty save some old dusty propaganda posters. [/i] Okay, one guard is at the center of the vortex, the other is still standing. So they all took their next turn, with more running from the apostate. The guard on you, even with +40 (30 from PBR and +10 half action aim) still can't hit you due to a lucky high roll. This is essentially your 2nd turn now. The door was simple easy to breach into. you are all in the managers office, the blue rectangles are windows. I rolled ini for the minions and cully this time. In the future if you fail to roll ini for yourself and your minions, I'll just assume you rolled a 1.  Purple and blue circle is vortex, with one guard still inside it. Ini Pancracius: 15 yellow star Yeseul: 13 orange star Vault: 11 yellow dot Tess:10 green star Guards: 8 -one at 6/8 wounds, and prone. Apostate: 8 ini Aricia:8 orange dot Rodan: 7 blue star Cully: 7 Red star[/i]
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Jul 16, 2016 00:38
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Warehouse Showdown Rodan keeps channeling psychic energy into the vortex he summoned, which finally trips up the other guard, sucking him into the vortex. The guard that is already in the vortex tries to stand, but the force keeps pulling him in, and a sickening crack is heard as some ribs shatter. The Apostate and her two guards are caught by surprise when Cully bust down the inner door and takes some wide shots at them. Pancracius goes and knocks the window out with his hand like and idiot, when either a weapon, or his hulking servitor, could have done the same. He tosses out the grenade with his injured hand, which causes it to go wide, and the blast seems to have no impact on the Apostate anyway. Tess reaches into the warp, and tries to cloud the mind of one of the Guards. As the guns of everyone near-by jam and poor Vault lets out smoke, one of the guards across from them goes slack, before turning his bolter on his comrade. He fires three shots, but the first one tipped of his friend, the second goes wide, and the third shot is barely avoided. The guard that was shot upon takes aim and fires back at Tess,, but the shot goes wide. The Apostate, taking careful stock of the situation on front of her, starts to run back to the platform over the lava.  Purple and blue circle is vortex, with one guard still inside it. Ini Pancracius: 12/13 yellow star Yeseul: orange star Vault: 8/9 yellow dot Tess: green star Guards: -one at -3/8 wounds, in vortex, stunned 1 rnd and prone -one at 4/8 wounds, in vortex and prone Apostate: 8 ini Rodan: blue star <---- You are here Cully: Red star[/i] Outside: As the crowd starts spilling out of the warehouse, Arica looks around for Yeseul, but does not see her mistress. Frightened by the huge crowd of approaching, yet screaming, workers, she takes cover behind a crate and curls up into a ball. Jenny aims at one of the newly arrived guards, but even with her calm and her red-dot, the crowd makes it too hard to get a good shot, and a worker gets a las shot to the torso. Meanwhile Woodhouse opens up with her autogun, which causes everyone to scatter. If the crowd or workers weren't going to disperse, they sure were after the autogun hits a few. The guards, both with bolter and bolt pistol, take cover behind nearby crates. Jenny should be glad that las guns have reliable, because the roll would have been a jam anyway. The civies are gone, Arica is out of the fight, and your four enemies are in cover. They are all roughly 100 meters away. You and Woodhouse act first, then all four of them.
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Jul 21, 2016 02:24
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Even though the Cell is handicapped due to a friendly weapons jam, the heretics prove they are disorganized to an extreme; while they might have decent armor and weapons for menials, they don't know one thing about tactics. The two in Rodan's vortex remain. In short order the sound of a blood curdling scream is heard followed by and outwards explosion of blood and organs, which quickly get sucked back into the vortex. Though the power had undesired effects for the team, and didn't result in any injury, the heretic that was shot at turns on the one that was brainwashed in anger and fires a round at his feet. This delay gives the cell all the opportunity they need. Cully and Tess make their way forward, with the Guardsmen quickly closing with a heretic. While they might have flak vests it is nothing but vest, and Cully easily carves a leg out from underneath him. Tess closes on the other, and between a few swipes of the sword and some additional fire from Pan* and Yeseul, the other one is taken down. By this time the Apostate had made her way back to the platform, but between Cully to the west and Rodan to the south, she realizes she is caught. She momentarily glances at the gap, and considers jumping, but an ominous shake of the head from Rodan causes her to back down. Defeated, she lowers to her knees and puts her hands up. Outside, the suppressing fire and a couple of lucky long las shots lead to the guards dying or fleeing. Okay, you have a prisoner. If it is your intent to interrogate, you get a +10 from her being frightened.
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Jul 27, 2016 23:59
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Confident that they should be undisturbed in this warehouse with everyone running off, and realizing their only safehouse is half a planet away, and with a daemonhost rooming there, the group decides to interrogate the Apostate. The going is really tough at first. They start out with simple questions, such as "who is your boss" and the women seems unable to respond. As the group gets more and more focused on their techniques Tess starts to feel some warp energy emanating from the apostate, and after she clues in Rodan what to look for, he does too. The warp energy seems to ebb and flow. Everytime they ask something related to the psyker that leads this cult the warp would flare up, and the woman wouldn't know what they were talking about. As soon as the subject was changed, the warp presence would disappear. Eventually, with enough probing the warp presence swelled one last time, only to suddenly disappear, leading the woman to become much more talkative. Okay, little behind the scenes. The Psyker is using a warp power I made up to mask his presence in the minds of his own lieutenants. This translated to a mechanical benefit where the individual getting interrogated gains a bonus to resist based on the DoS on the focus power test. Even with that boost, the apostate can't exceed your DoS. Going by RAW, interrogation says you get one answer for each DoS, but I think it should be the difference between your test and theirs, seeing as the cultist also passed. Had she failed you'd get the full 8. But since she did pass with the boost from the psychic fuckery, you get FOUR (4) answers. Since is was Skellybones doing the interrogating I want his post to be the ultimate say as to what questions are asked that the apostate will answer. By all means each of you toss in suggestions, but I want the final post of the X answers you're getting to be made by Skellybones. I won't look at questions posted by others that Skellybones doesn't post.  NOTE I will be attending Gen Con this year. I will be gone the third through the 7th, returning monday the 8th. If you get your four questions in by tomorrow evening, I will post before I go, otherwise, i'll update again once I return.
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Aug 2, 2016 00:22
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The Apostate, bloodied and broken, spits a tooth out onto the ground. "My Immediate Superior? It is Machis, the tongue of Grandfather Babyah, Herald of the Coming Revolution!" The Apostate seems to rally as she speaks of Babyah. "You cannot stop us. We grow and infest our way into the worker population. Those too weak to fight are lulled into believing they will be of use during the Revolution. They will only be a wall of chaff to soak up blows for those who can really fight. Those who come out of the Ritual of Subsumtion stronger will be the true fighters. Those men and women here who were to defend me are only some of the weakest of War Chief Bryon's men. The Apostate smiles, but the pain of a broken rib quickly wipes it from her face. "It are those that gain the pox from the Ritual, they are the truly blessed ones. They will be bled, and their blood shall fuel Grandfather Babyah's grand ritual. And you'll never stop him. You can go ahead and tear apart my print shop five levels up, but it will do you no good. When I met Grandfather and had the Ritual of Uplifting, Machis had blind-folded me for just this occasion. Kill me if you must, for my soul will go to the Garden Babyah had talked about when he put his mark upon my mind." You have your answers. Where do you go from here? Do you try to find the Apostate's workshop, or do you try to follow up on some of these names? Or I guess both.
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Aug 10, 2016 03:03
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The acolytes unceremoniously pushes the apostate over the edge of the platform, her scream rather short before she quickly starts on fire from proximity to the heat. Thankfully for her she is on fire rather briefly before she then impacts the molten lava below. The group decide to make their way to her print shop that she mentioned. It isn't that hard to find; the level is still rather low in the city, and is mostly populated by the cast offs of the city above; mostly people with some deformity or injury that makes them unable to work in the production of firearms. Finding the one building teaming with activity isn't hard to do. The acolytes take quick stock and see the place is staffed by only two people. The group quickly moves in, and the two folks working in the print shop draw weapons, so the acolytes have to quickly put them down. The print shop is pretty much as advertised; there is one printing press in the middle, old and rusted, barely put together, next to a cogitator with a primitive GUI. Quick inspection of the cogitator reveals nothing of note, all it contains is a graphic design interface for making leaflets that the press then prints. The group quickly recognize the leaflets as the coded documents that led them down to the meeting. Despite the code in the leaflets, other documents found are not coded. There are many small notes signed "M" giving the apostate simple directions on what messages are to be in the pamphlets. There are no code books, so it appears the apostate had to memorize the code. Nothing in the documents seem to indicate where "M" is located. The group is still searching through the print shop when Yeseul, Pan, and Cully hear some people outside. Cully quickly peaks outside a boarded up window and sees a small group of people approaching. They number seven (of course), and are dressed similarly to the guards the group just fought. But unlike the guards, this group seems much more organized and even better equipped. Instead of flak vests they all have a full suit of beat up guard flak armor. Their weapons are also more than just simple bolters. Four of them have bolters with melee attachments on them. Two of them have slightly bulkier guard flak armor and are equipped with flamers. Finally one of them seems to be the leader of the group. He is in a full suit of guard flak armor, though it appears to be environmentally sealed. He is almost a head larger than the rest of the group, and is equipped much better. He has a chainsword in one hand, and a very poor looking plasma pistol in the other. He also has a larger weapon at his back. Maybe a shotgun or other slug thrower, it is hard to tell. It seems the group isn't moving as though they have noticed anything out of the ordinary yet. The big guy motions to the two with flamers and points at the warehouse. They have probably received word of the attack on the apostate and are trying to clean up. Okay, so I had everyone do an awareness test to see if the spotted the guys approaching. Originally it was to avoid a surprise round from them. Then Cully had to go and roll a 01, and I figured that was so good a roll that you guys actually get a surprise round on them. I don't want to gently caress with a map this time. The workshop is a simple one room building. Doors on the north and south, windows on each of the four walls. The enemies are 45 meters away from west, so they can easily get to either door. There is enough debris outside that they can take cover of AP 4. Assume you can make it to any window or door from your current position as a half action.So your surprise round will be half action move to door/window, half action something else. They are equipped as follows: 4x thugs: bolter w/melee attachment, chain dagger, poor quality guard flak armor 2x incinerators: Flamers, stub autos, Poor quality guard flak armor w/ceremite 1 leader: Chainsword, poor quality plasma pistol, unknown SP weapon, guard flak armor w/vac sealed. everyone post your surprise round action, your first round action, and your initiative. Yes, that is two actions! Their ini is as follows: Thug 4: 13 Leader: 10 Incinerator 2: 10 Thug 3: 9 Incinerator 1: 8 Thug 1: 5 Thug 2: 4
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Aug 17, 2016 03:14
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jolinaxas, if you want, you can carry over your half action aim into the first round, making it a full action aim and then attack.
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Aug 17, 2016 14:36
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The approaching enemy soldiers are unaware of what awaits them in the print shop. The acolytes get into position around the window, and fire upon the unsuspecting people below. Many of the shots go wide, but a couple of them hit their targets, eliciting shock and surprise. Rodan summons a warp vortex that should catch one of the incinerators and another armed thug, but they are much hardier than the guns guarding the Apostate, and they easily avoid being dragged into the hole in reality. The attackers quickly take cover behind near-by debris such as burned out auto carriages and the remnants of barrel fires. Yeseul takes a few shots with her las pistol, and the men below are still stunned enough from the initial attack that they duck behind some barrels. One of the thugs fires at Cully, who ignores the miss and fires instead on the incinerator again, causing him to scream in pain. The Leader takes a knee behind a burned out car and draws the weapon from his back. It becomes clear to everyone present that the weapon is a rotary style grenade launcher. he rotates the chamber to select a certain grenade type and he aims it not at the building, but in front of it. The grenade lands and rolls a little bit, before a hissing noise is heard and thick, green smoke begins to fill the area in front of the western window. The approaching attackers become nothing but shadows moving in the smoke. The only positive is the wall of smoke equally covers the acolytes. While the acolytes take a couple of shots through the smoke managing to hit only it, some of the warriors from the other side are seen to move closer through the smoke. Okay, Cully was the only one who managed to do much of anything here, though Yeseul did get a couple of them pinned. Warp vortex wasn't as useful this time, followers of Nurgle tend to be good on toughness tests, who would have known? Smoke screen: 5 meters away from west side of building, 12 rounds remaining Yeseul <----- we are here! Thug 4: 41m Cully Rodan Leader: 45m Incinerator 2: 37m 05/18 Tess Thug 3: 37m Incinerator 1:45m Pinned Arica Thug 1:45m Pinned Thug 2:37m Pan Jenny 4x thugs: bolter w/melee attachment, chain dagger, poor quality guard flak armor 2x incinerators: Flamers, stub autos, Poor quality guard flak armor w/ceremite 1 leader: Chainsword, poor quality plasma pistol, Grenade launcher, guard flak armor w/vac sealed
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Aug 26, 2016 00:04
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The enemies begin advancing and firing. The quickest of the thugs fires through the smoke, and his bolter round somehow finds a mark in Jenny, who was too stunned by the attack to even duck into cover, even though the acolytes had the element of surprise. The bolt round impacts right below Jenny's jaw, the ensuing detonation turns her head into fine mist, her broken jaw clattering to the ground. Seeing his comrade blown up next to him, Cully activates his preysense and fires through the smoke. All three rounds miraculously hit. The first two elicit some scream of pain from the target as his hand snaps back from his incinerator; the extent of the damage unclear from just the thermal outline provided by the goggles. The third shot nails the Incinerator in the torso, going clear through him and puncturing the flamer fuel he was carrying. He goes up in flames instantly. The two thugs flanking him are caught in the blast. Each one manages to avoid the flames, but by the way the appear to wince and old their sides, the shockwave from the blast must have done some internal damage. Rodan attempts to trap the gang leader in another warp vortex, but he manages to remain free, just like his compatriots. Annoyed, the leader rotates the cylinder on the grenade launcher again, and fires it through the smoke. A loud audible "click" is heard as the round fails to fire. That loud audible click is followed by a much louder audible explosion as the frag grenade in the tube, which still was primed, detonates, along with the other grenades in the launcher. When all is done, all that anyone can see is another cloud of smoke. Mostly ignoring their leader's predicament, the rest of the thugs take shots at Cully while advancing, or remaining in cover still from Yeseul's previous suppressing fire. Okay, viva kills one flamer guy, causing a crit 10 to the body, so the guy explodes. Since he was carrying flamer fuel I did have the two flanking thugs who were caught in the blast make agility tests to avoid fire, and they did, but still got damaged. I know both times you said flamer 1, but my dumb rear end applied the damage to flamer 2 both times, which they are a horse apiece, so no foul. Leader had a jam with his launcher, thought it would be fun for it to explode. It had three frags, one hallucinogen, and one smoke in it. He soaked all the frags (nurgle, huh?) has vac sealed armor, and well, is now covered in smoke. Firesight, you forgot to take into account the -20 from the smoke, so you actually only rolled a 55 and got 3 doS, so you only got one extra Dice from accurate. Still, your felling negated the unnatural toughness these guys have, and he actually failed toughness against his toxic roll, so you did respectable damage. Bonelorde: I guess I wasn't sure if you still wanted your characters to do the same things as last round or not, so I did, but they both missed with stuff. Please make sure you indicate in your next post what they're doing. You all have lucked out in that one flamer guy is dead, and the other is still out of range thanks to being pinned, which he now has shaken. If you keep them locked down, this should be an easy fight. Smoke screen: 5 meters away from west side of building, 1 rounds remaining Smoke 2: on leader 45M away, 19 rounds remaining Yeseul <----- we are here! Thug 4: 33m 11/18 Cully Rodan Leader: 45m 12/21 Tess Thug 3: 29m 11/18 Incinerator 1:45m Arica Thug 1:45m Pinned Thug 2:29m Pan 4x thugs: bolter w/melee attachment, chain dagger, poor quality guard flak armor 2x incinerators: Flamers, stub autos, Poor quality guard flak armor w/ceremite 1 leader: Chainsword, poor quality plasma pistol,
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Sep 8, 2016 03:16
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Yeah, likely Just Pan, maybe Yeusel too. I read the Frenzy and corruption as going hand in hand, so if you pass the willpower test you resist the frenzy and the corruption. That said, you could choose to let the warp overtake you, though frenzy means trying to engage in melee. I hear it is a good pain. Once bonelorde posts I'll do an update through everyone but Pan, so firesight can react to the rest of the turn order, though he will need to do his willpower test if he doesn't want to rip and tear.
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Sep 8, 2016 13:45
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Yesuel opens fire with her las-pistol at the incinerator and the two thugs within the killzone, causing them all to take cover behind the various debris one finds in these types of slums. One of the thugs fires on Cully only for the defiant machine spirit in the thug's bolter to jam, eliciting curses from him. Cully ignores him, and instead runs towards the remaining Incinerator and his comrades, coming within 5 meters of one of the thugs. Rodan has the same idea, but he moves a much more modest distance. The leader of the group emerges from the smoke, and fires his plasma pistol at Cully and fires, but the former guardsmen quickly steps out of the side, some hair on his arm singed as the plasma shot punches a hole in a nearby building. Tess reaches out into the mind of one of the thugs and tries to take control. While she does manage to do so, some of the hate within the thug feeds back through the link, and Tess can only vent the hate outwards to prevent her own mind from being destroyed. This hate, augmented by the warp, washes over the mind of Yesuel, causing her to see red, quite literally. However, the psyker's gambit works. The targeted thug is compelled against his will to turn his bolter at his comrade, the round penetrating his armor and eliciting a pain scream from the other thug. The remaining incinerator, still cowering from the rounds fired by Yesuel, peaks over the wrecked out auto-carriage and sees that Cully has made his way out from cover, but was close enough to one of the other thugs to make using the flamer too dangerous. He instead pulls his stub automatic and fires, the round using most of its force to get through his armor. The two remaining thugs also shoot at Cully. The one farthest takes an unsteady shot from cover and misses. The other thug, less than 10 meters from Cully, quickly squeezes off two rounds, and even at this range and ducking behind cover, he could not miss. One round tears into Cully's right leg causing pain to radiate. Smoke screen: 5 meters away from west side of building, 10 rounds remaining Smoke 2: 45M away, 18 rounds remaining Yeseul Thug 4: 25m 07/18 JAMMED Cully:10/13 24 meters from building (closest enemy thug 2 at 5 meters) Rodan: 4 meters from building Leader: 37m 12/21 Tess Thug 3: 29m 11/18 Incinerator 1:45m Arica Thug 1:45m Pinned Thug 2: 29m pinned Pan <----- we are here! 4x thugs: bolter w/melee attachment, chain dagger, poor quality guard flak armor 2x incinerators: Flamers, stub autos, Poor quality guard flak armor w/ceremite 1 leader: Chainsword, poor quality plasma pistol, Werix fucked around with this message at 04:41 on Sep 10, 2016 |
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Sep 10, 2016 04:00
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Pan is overcome by the warp leakage, and runs towards the nearest thug. Now he could have joined up with Cully, but that thug was just a little too far away, so he runs right towards another thug, sreaming incoherently about headshots. That thug is the same one who was facing down a weapon jam, and he sees the scrawny adept charging him. Thankfully the adept doesn't quite make it there before he can reload, but the thug does not have time to return fire. Cully meanwhile makes his way towards one of the already wounded thugs, and takes a chunk out of hit chest, the chainsword rending through most of the old flak armor like it was nothing. Meanwhile, as Cully carves, Rodan runs, bringing himself to close with the leader, well almost to close. The leader smiles at Rodan, "I'll enjoy cooking you!" He thumbs a switch on the side of the plasma pistol and it begins to hum. He pulls the trigger, and a slight delay occurs as the pistol builds up energy and fires off. At three meters away, it was unlikely that the leader would miss, and probability works against Rodan. However, Rodan taps into the warp to tell probability "not today", and is able to side step the plasma round, which hits a near-by building, starting a small exterior fire. However, the laws of nature and probability fight back and a large scream erupts from everywhere as reality yells in pain, causing some of the thugs to grab their ears. The thug that was just carved up by Cully tries to poke him back with the bayonnet, but Cully daftly parries it. Arica hits the incinerator, causing him to visibly wince, but he still stands. Okay, leader does fire plasma pistol at Rodan, Rodan tries to use precog dodge but rolls a 89. Since that is 2d10+7 Pen:10 I assumed you'd want to Infamy re-roll, and I did, which allowed you to pass, to Rodan uses one infamy (unless you'd rather take the hit). Your perils was 61, which is Banshee Howl. Everyone make a +0 toughness test or be deafened for 3 rounds! Smoke screen: 5 meters away from west side of building, 9 rounds remaining Smoke 2: 45M away, 17 rounds remaining Yeseul 24m away from building, 1m from thug 4 Thug 4: 25m 07/18 Deaf 3 rnds Cully:10/13 29 meters from building in melee w/ thug 3 Rodan: 33 meters from building Leader: 37m 12/21 Tess 18 meters (closest enemy is either of the 25m guys at 7m away) Thug 3: 29m 04/18 deaf 3 rnds In melee w/ Cully Incinerator 1:45m 15/18 Arica Thug 1:45m Jammed Thug 2: 29m deaf 3rnds Pan 18M away (closest enemy Thug 4 at 7m) <----- we are here! 4x thugs: bolter w/melee attachment, chain dagger, poor quality guard flak armor 2x incinerators: Flamers, stub autos, Poor quality guard flak armor w/ceremite 1 leader: Chainsword, poor quality plasma pistol,
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Sep 17, 2016 00:39
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The remainder of the combat was brutal and bloody. Rodan closes in with the leader, and once in close range, manages to use his whip to take down the foe, after a bit of a rocky start. Cully manages to dispatch his foe, while Tess manages to have one of the thugs turn his bolter on himself. With their leader dead and their numbers fast falling, the other thugs break off and try to flee, but thankfully Aricia manages to burst the fleeing incinerator's fuel tank, taking him down along with a couple of his friends. The last fleeing thug is dispatched by the as always stellar shooting of Cully. With the response force taken down, the group quickly, yet thoroughly, finish their investigation. Since they managed to keep the print shop fire free, they gather some documents there, as well as inspect the bodies of the dead thugs. None of them have written orders on them, that would be too easy, but a few things seem to come together. In the print shop there are a bunch of paper pads with the Arbax Arms letterhead on them. Their content isn't too illuminating, just different scribbled ideas for fliers. However, the interesting thing is that a couple of the thugs are wearing old worker jumpsuits with Arbax Arms markings as well, and their bolers carry a stamp on them similar to the insignia on the uniform and writing pads. The crew make their way up to the more civilized portions of Gunmetal City, carrying the headless body of Jenny with them, no one wanting to leave her down there to rot. They make a quick stop at a morgue, before going to an Administratum complex and using their public terminals to look up Arbax Arms. From the publicly available knowledge it seems Arbax Arms was a Manufactorum started by out of sector interests who happened to get a Mechanicus license to manufacture arms and armor for an elite Guard regiment outside of the sector. News articles tell of the construction of the plant, and then not much else until 11 years ago, when articles mention that the workers at the factory went on strike due to horrible working conditions. The articles mention that the Arbites were called in along with Enforcers to quell the strike, but it erupted in violence, with workers turning stolen weapons on the arbites. The business puttered along for another two years, but nine years ago the regiment they were under license to supply was dissolved when their planet was devoured by Tyranids. All the pieces seem to fit. It would appear that this Nurgle Psyker is based in the old Arbax Arms factory, using the remaining stockpile of goods to arm his troops while likely using the old worker uprising there to feed his narrative to the workers he is converting. Chances are the location is going to be a hot-bed of activity. The group could try to sneak in, but that would be a tall order to accomplish. An assault could be mounted, but the group had just lost one member to a small handful of cultists. The last option would be to tell the Arbites. They had enough evidence, not to mention Throne Agent Rossettes, to push them into action. Hell, the matter could be left to the arbites to clean up. Okay, hand waived that fight since I didn't want it to drag down the game anymore. I am now presenting you all an option. You can try and move forward here, either alone, or with arbites support. Or you could inform the arbites and let them handle it from here. This is being presented as an option to move the game forward and get closer to that whole Black Crusading thing. There will be no additional experience, infamy, or corruption awarded in dealing with it personally, and if you leave it to the arbites, they will succeed in wiping out the cult. The only potential difference that could come out of deciding to pursue it to its conclusion would be if the group instead decided to side with the cult and leave it alone. Actually, you could still take that option now. If you Just walk away and tell no one, the cult will flourish. So please post and indicate if you would rather: 1.See this through to its conclusion and if you want to do it alone or have arbites support, 2. Leave it to the Arbites, 3. Just walk away and let the cult alone. Feel free to of course discuss this in or out of character. I am offering this merely as a way to move along the main story. If everyone wants to finish the cult, I am more than willing to do so.
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Sep 28, 2016 03:07
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Part I:Precipice of the Abyss Act II: Dark Side of the Inquisition All my friends are heathens take it slow Wait for them to ask you who you know Please don't make any sudden moves You don't know the half of the abuse. Old Terran Poem, author unknown, declared Heriticus Minor for advocating consorting with heretics and implying mistreatment by authority. The acolyte cell make their way to the Arbites Block, and ask to speak to someone sufficiently high enough to deal with Throne agents, and things move quickly when the group presents their Inquisitorial credentials. To their credit, the Gunmetal City arbites take it rather seriously, and a senior Justicar is soon greeting the acolytes. They lay out their case, going from the hidden messages in the pamphlets, reporting their run ins with the apostate and the thugs, and all the paraphernalia from Arbax Arms. The only difficult thing is making up some way that they know the cult is led by a Nurgle psyker; telling the Justicar that their daemonhost interrogator told them probably would not have gone over too well. As the arbites are mobilizing, the group gets a communication from Inquisitor Whitehall asking them all to meet her as quickly as their current assignment allows. Seeing as they had passed their information on to the arbites, the group think now would be as good of a time as any to leave, and they make their way back to their hotel in Hive Sibellus. Upon their arrival, Whitehall is waiting along with Banca/Xanaroch. The daemonhost is bound in the additional warding, seals, and chains that Whitehall typically uses while traveling with the daemonhost, though the more warp atuned among the group have never felt Xanaroch's power decline when bound as such, and think it has little to no effect. Whitehall looks eager to get going, and quickly greets everyone. "Okay. I am glad you all handled that situation in Gunmetal City, but that was merely an opportunity to take advantage of..." She pauses and looks around the group, inquiring as to Jenny's location. When she is filled in Whitehall slams her fist down on the kitchen counter. "drat it, I am getting sick of losing everyone. This all ends here today. While you lot were dealing with all of that, I was off at the Tricorn Palace, gathering some intel. There is an Ordo Malleus Inquisitor Named Jethras Slone. Many consider Jethras a radical, as he has a very unique method of dealing with daemons. See, when a daemon enters the material plane and is defeated, it does not truly die, it returns to the Immaterium, where it is trapped for a time, though eventually it can re-enter the material plane." "Or a daemon who has been banished can be brought back through, say, a binding ritual," Xanaroch adds with a toothy grin. Whitehall glares the creature down, and then continues, "Anyway, Inquisitor Slone combats daemons by enacting rituals and binding them into daemonhosts. he then keeps theses daemonhosts hidden away in a secret facility, a prison for daemons. To put it simply, I have figured out where he has his prison located. It is right here on Scintilla, in the ruins of Hive Tenebra" The name is familiar to all in the room to some extent. Everyone knows Hive Tenebra was located in the jungles on Scintilla's equator. Some major event happened about a thousand years ago, making it uninhabited. Since then the hive has been slowly reclaimed by the jungle. Whitehall continues,"If we can find the facility, then we can find Slone's notes. No one else who is still ostensibly loyal would know more about binding rituals. If his documents don't show us how to beat this binding ritual, nothing will." The blackness leaves Xanaroch's eyes the distant voice of Banca can be heard, "Don't do this, it is madness. If you go there the beast in me will use the opportunity to break all those daemonhosts free!" Her eyes quickly go black again, and Xanaroch smiles, but says nothing. Whitehall seems to ignore the thing. "We have two options. We can fly straight to Tenebra and land there. It would be expedient, but I am sure that Slone will have some sort of radar scanners, and his facility staff will know we are coming. Otherwise we can land some distance away in the jungle and march there on foot. This isn't a death world, so there should be little risk, but it will be tiring, I will leave it to you." Okay, 500 exp to everyone. No corruption or infamy, as you haven't done much to warrant it. Whitehall is offering two potential entry routes. Direct or walk up. Or if you want you could try to kill the daemonhost as viva wants. Keep in mind I have statted it out, and I will not pull punches. Plus whitehall will probably side with the daemon in her misguided loyalty towards the host.
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Oct 7, 2016 02:12
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Whithall smiles at the question from Tess. "The situation is a little more complex than that. Slone is a loyalist, just as we are, but he certainly in that gray area. Some of our peers in the Heriticus believe that consorting with daemonhosts at all is unforgivable," Whitehall seems oblivious to that statement's impact having Xanaroch standing next to her. "Some of my peers have even held an inquest against Slone, and he refused to share any of his information then, or whenever anyone else has asked. I don't plan for us to approach his compund and ask for the data, we are going to either sneak in or break in, and steal it. The Inquisitor isn't on world, so we won't even be dealing with him, just whatever security he has, which given the prisoners, might still be formidable. Keep that information in mind as we plan our approach. Also I don't know where the facility is other than somewhere in the ruins of hive Tenebra." At Cully's outburst Xanaroch laughs, and Whitehall stands up to her full height, staring Cully directly in the eye. "No one has forced you to be here Cully. I don't conscript my Throne Agents. You have been free this entire time to leave if you disagree with my methods. Banca isn't just my Interrogator, she was also all of your training officer and superior. She's saved each of your lives more times than any of you can count. If she hadn't been around you would have been eviscerated by that pure-strain genestealer On Golg Prime. Or what about that serial killer noble that got the drop on Rodan, who survived only due to quick thinking from Banca. Or Emperor forbid that Dark Eldar who got her hands on Jenny in the jungles of Ultir VI. Each of you have reasons to be here. If none of that matters to you, then go and leave now, I don't want you here." Xanaroch frowns, "No madam inquisitor, let Cully stay. I would like to see him try and fight me. I'll flay his mind and leave him a brainless little toy for me to play with." Whitehall backhands the daemonhost, and glares at it before turning back to Cully. "Get your poo poo together before I let it do just that. So leave, or stow that poo poo soldier." Okay some new info: 1. Whitehall doesn't know where in the hive it is. 2. You'll have to sneak in or fight in and steal the info. 3. Daemonhosts are creepy. Don't know if that changes anyone's plans of approach.
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Oct 7, 2016 22:24
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Xanaroch makes a faux clearing of her throat sound, and speaks, It is amazing you all are this incompetent. Location is not important; if there really is a high concentration of my kin there even the inept Rodan could detect them from a fly by, much less myself. Do a quick fly by, detect the giant daemonic presences, and then land there, they won't have time to prepare." Whitehall glares the creature down, "Why would you even help?" Xanaroch gives her standard, unsettling grin, "Because I can't wait to see you fail, which will allow me to unleash all my friends! Can you imagine what that many daemonhosts could accomplish if set loose on a sector capital?" Whitehall ignores the comment, and looks at the group, "That seems as good an idea as any to me, Rodan, Tess, you keep your psy-feelers out, so we don't rely on just the daemon. A flyby shouldn't totally be out of the ordinary if there are sensors and radar, so we'll fly over, you will try to pinpoint the location, and then we'll land outside the hive and go in on foot. I doubt that Slone has the whole hive rigged with security and surveillance." If the plan made, everyone loads up into Whitehall's air-truck outside, with Xanaroch in the back, as usual, and the vehicle makes off towards the starport, and to Whitehall's waiting guncutter. The truck pulls right up the ramp, and the entire party gets out and takes their places. The pilot servitors are given their directives, and the ship takes off for orbit, and within 20 minutes, is reentering over the central continent. The party is greeted by nothing but green below, as the large central rain forests take up the landscape below. It does not take long for the massive yet decaying form of Hive Tenebra to appear. The hive takes the shape of a circle of tiered pyramids six in total, rising out of the jungle, a collapsing loop running between them that was once a 48 lane super highway. The pyramids themselves are built atop yet more constructs, what would have clearly been the underhive back in its day. The Guncutter makes a through, yet fast loop of each pyramid. Xanaroch is brought out of her hold, and sits near Rodan and Tess as they each reach out with their minds. The two begin to question the plan, but that questioning goes out the window as the guncutter reaches the upper spires of the north-most pyramid. At that moment Rodan and Tess and bombarded with horrifying visions while Xanaroch's mouth opens wide. The blackness retreats from her eyes as Banca once again asserts control. She stares at Whitehall for nearly 30 seconds and shakes her head yes before Xanaroch once again reasserts itself. With the target hive located, Whitehall orders the guncutter to land at the base of the hive. The party disembarks, and begins to make their way into the under-hive, which contains a sewage system. For the first time in anyone's lives, they enter a sewer with no sewage, given that it no one above is producing any. Now they only have to figure out how to get up to the upper hive. Okay, so I was going to do a navigate surface test to see if you all know your way, or if you get lost, until I realized no one has the skill. I just want to give some of you a chance to react to the above and to come up with suggestions before I launch into another wall of text, or have you encounter whatever creepies lurk in the abandoned hive.
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Oct 11, 2016 23:09
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The group continue to trudge themselves through the the thankfully dry sewer. Judging by the walls and the remnants of high water marks, had this hive city still been functional, this most certainly would not have been a route the group could have traveled without being literally neck deep in the worst humanity has to offer. The going is rather simple, the pipe they are in is large, with many smaller branching pipes coming off of it; likely making this a major junction in the system. With no other goal than to go "up" and with no indication any of the side passages indeed go "up", the group continues on their way. After nearly two hours, the group starts to wonder if the pipe cuts right through the bottom of the hive, and if they were already on their way back out, when the distant sound of drums started to echo from straight ahead. Hurrying out of the pipe, the group finds before them the remains of an old waste processing system large enough to give the largest parade squares in a hive city a run for their money. In the distance, near the back of the array of long dried waste ponds, the group sees what they had been looking for, an old service elevator large enough to fit a baneblade on. The elevator is on the back wall, and to the amazement of the group, it is slowly ascending towards the ceiling of the complex some 300 meters above. The source of the drumming is also apparent. A large community of some type has made their home around the base of the elevator, shacks made of various pieces of refuse interlaced in what remained of what used to pass for the control center of the treatment plant. A thought does occur to try and see if the inhabitants would let the group use the elevator, but even from here, the group can see spikes with human heads and skulls on them surrounding the outside walls. While not definitive, it is likely evidence that the souls inside won't want to talk. Other than that some honest to goodness doors appear on the perimeter of the large room, and may lead to some other way to go "up". In the distance, the cargo elevator finally slams home in the opening in the ceiling. Okay, you've found some cargo cult around the base of an elevator. You can try to sneak through, fight through, or if inclined talk through. Or you can take your luck with trying to find a way around through some of the other side tunnels. You're out of the sewers proper, and any side tunnels would be lowest of the under-hive.
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Oct 18, 2016 00:29
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The group make their recommendation to Whitehall that they just try to ask to use the Elevator up to the surface. She listens to the group, and agrees that it is worth a shot. The Inquisitor elects to stay behind out of sight with Xanaroch, to ensure that the natives are not scared off by the beast. The rest of the group make their way forward, descending between the empty treatment ponds, now acting as waste pits for the primitives around the elevator. As they approach the gates, the spikes with heads on them start to increase in number. Most of them are skulls, with some having slid down the poles to rest on the ground as the flesh and brain rotted away, while others are much more fresh, yellowing eyeballs locked in a horrified death glare. Most of the skulls and heads show signs of mutation. Some have one eye socket, or three, some have fangs and even horns, among some more mundane defects like a clear cleft pallet. Long before the group reaches the gate, the drumming on the other side of the wall stops. As the group gets to within 100 meters a shout is heard from the top of the wall. A small door placed in the gate opens and a hunched over man slowly approaches the group, mainly because one of his legs has turned into a barely functional tentacle. The man gets rather close; close enough for the group to see the rest of his mutations. The man begins to speak hurriedly, and in a language no one understands. Thankfully, Pan has a knack with languages, and is able to quickly work out in general what the man is saying. He indicates that they approach the realm the Con l'om keepers of the Arena of the Sky Hell. Pan indicates that the group wishes to use the lift, which after a bunch of pointing and gesticulating becomes clear that the elevator is the Arena. The primitive is confused at first; no one ever goes up with the arena; the Arena goes to the Sky Hell, and it descends when one or more of its denizens is there. Then those warriors who are brave enough try to fight the denizens of the sky hell. They are valued for their claws and other weapons, but are very hard to kill. The man says if the group wants, they may wait until the Arena lowers, and if they defeat one of the sky hell denizens, they may go up with the arena. Pan asks some more questions. It appears that there is a button that at least raises the elevator, and that the Con L'om raise it whenever there is a red light in their throne room that turns on. They say the Arena always lowers by itself. The group quickly agrees they will fight, even if that is not their intention. The man welcomes the group inside, with them giving a glance over their shoulder to Whitehall; she gives a thumbs up, indicating she will let the group handle things. The inside of the camp is what would be expected by such a thing. Middle Age Tech levels meet salvaged goods. Everyone is mutated to some degree. The group see mutants that would be classified as ratlings or Ogryn in the Imperium at large, while others have mutations that would commonly result from exposure to toxic substances. Yesseul does notice that some of the mutants have mutations such as wings or tentacles that are almost always a result of exposure to warp taint. Most of the mutants are engaging in drink and song around the base of the elevator. Some of the most fearsome mutants have weapons made out of claws of some unidentifiable creature. Unidentifiable to all but Pan. The way the bones curve, the sharp jagged edges, even how just wrong they look, they are clearly the bladed talons of a Warp Beast. In wracking his brain Pan can only come up with one type of warp creature that could produce such blades and leave them behind in the Material Realm upon death: Chaos Spawn. Someone up above is sending down Chaos Spawn, and these mutants are fighting them. Okay, so Firesight steals the show. Thankfully he took polyglot, or else you would never have gotten in peacefully. He also rolled a loving 08 on a FL Daemonology roll to identify the source of the mutants weapons. That said Bonelorde did also pass a FL mutants tests to recognize that many of the mutants are chaos mutants. So I see you having three options (though feel free to propose your own): 1. Chaos Spawn killing mutants? gently caress This!- you can leave the camp and try to find another way up in some of the side passages. 2. Suckers let us inside, lets get up.- You have no intention of fighting some chaos spawn. Try to find the elevator controls and see if you can summon it down, preferably before a chaos spawn is on it. Note the mutants will likely dislike having their battle take from them, and will likely try to fight you; expect a horde combat. 3. Chaos Spawn? poo poo, we got a daemon host on our backs!- Wait for the elevator, fight one (or more!) chaos spawn. Become legends among these primitives, and get free reign to go up the elevator yourself. I promise I will update much quicker once I get some decisions from you. Was just a very front loaded week with work is all.
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Oct 26, 2016 23:58
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Also, since it was mentioned, if you go the Chaos Spawn route, you will have to make a fear test. However, since Pan figured it out and everyone knows what to expect, it is +10 to the test. You will also be using the Heretic modifier to your fear test. You guys have been living with a daemonhost for some time, you're jaded heretics as far as fear is concerned.
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Oct 28, 2016 22:34
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Cully's bravado/deathwish makes the decision for the group, even if the others are joining more out of a desire to not see Cully wasted more than a desire to fight Chaos Spawn. The group bides their time and waits, while the locals whisper among them in their bastard language. The few conversations Pan picks up seem to indicate that the people of Con L'om desire to watch these hew and strange warriors fight, and those that had planned to fight the spawn instead make their place along the side of the arena. The locals took the time to create and maintain a giant arena build around the cargo elevator, made mostly of giant crushed pieces of rockcrete piled up with various large blades and spikes sticking out the side that is nearly 4 meters tall. After nearly an hour, the silence is broken by the sound of the cargo elevator starting its slow descent down into the sewage system. The lift itself has a cage around it, making sure that the creatures are doubly secure. As the elevator starts to descend the group is lowered one by one using a ladder into the makeshift pit. The Elevator takes its time to lower, while those below hear other worldly shrieks and other disturbing sounds. The elevator finally lowers, and the group get a brief glance at what is inside behind the fencing. Before them are two Chaos Spawn. The first one is a red monstrosity, about the size of a man. It's torso is one giant mouth, and it has eight tentacles covered in claws jutting from it. The other Is larger, and is dominated by one large tentacled limb jutting off the top. This one is covered in hundreds of sensory organs like eyes, noses, ears and tongues. It's flesh seems to vibrate, as if it was a pict recording that was out of tune, causing those who stare upon it to either get nauseous or become transfixed. Before either the acolytes or spawn can react to the other, the inner fence around the elevator slams down into the ground, leaving nothing between the two. Okay, so decided to randomly decided on the spawn by rolling a d5, with 1 being unaligned, 2 khorne, 3 slaanesh, 4 Nurgle, and 5 tzeentch. The first spawn: Blood beast (khorne aligned): Multiple arms (8), Regeneration (3), Size (4-Average) The second Spawn: Painleech: Slaanesh. Multiple arms (1?), Regeneration (1), Size (6-Enormous) So The Painleech has Fear (4) instead of the normal Fear (2), so each of you need to make me One Fear test at a +0. Normally for heretics it is a -20 for fear 4, but you get a +10 because you were expecting a spawn, and a +10 from Yeseul's Radiant presence. Well except Yeseul cannot benefit from her own radiant presence, so that is still at a -10. Also give me initiative. Once you have your posts with your fear results and your initiative, I'll roll with the two beasties and get combat started.
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Nov 2, 2016 01:43
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Didn't see a reason for a fluffy post, since we're just getting Ini order in place. Okay, So the arena is roughly 50 meters by 50 meters. The elevator takes up a square in the middle of that about 10 by 10. The rest of the arena is essentially a 20m ring around the 10 meter elevator.  Green is the elevator in the middle, red is the rest of the arena All of you can be as far as you want to be away between 10 meters and 25, since the beasts are in the middle. What I mean there is as the elevator lowered maybe you stayed back in the corner (25m away) or you stood right by the edge of the lift and waited (10m) or anything in between. So determine your spacing from the center when you post. I want all of you to post first, so that way I know your distances away. I know that it might impact your rolls based on where the painleech goes, though since the bloodbeast is at the bottom, those between it and the painleech could focus on the blood beast and hope the painleech don't go for you. Oh, and so you know, the painleech is moving with an AB 10 (2 base+6 unnatural agility+ 2 from size). So it can literally run from one side of the arena to another. Ini: Cully: 16 Yesseul: 14 Painleech:12 Pan: 12 Rodan: 10 Vault: 10 Tess:6 Aricia: 6 bloodbeast:6
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Nov 5, 2016 00:27
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Was going to go and post despite what I said in the OOC thread, but realize I don't have actions. Give me a Cully and Yesuel post and I'll update with the painleech action.
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Nov 10, 2016 03:06
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As soon as the elevator fully lowers and the safety cage lowers into the floor Cully is not frightened by the appearance of the beasts, but enraged, and is drawn by some unseen force toward the Pain Leech. He carves into the beast. meanwhile Yeseul charges in to stand by Cully's side, and slashes the beast with her more elegant Power Sword. However, the strike does nothing to the beast, showing that the brutal efficiency of the chain sword is more useful than the slicing field of a power sword when the enemy lacks armor for the field to slice through. The pain leech seems to be almost engaged by the mere presence of Cully, and turns its many eyes and gibbering mouths towards him. The large appendange on the top swings wildly at Cully, though the first hit goes wide and the second is batted away by the Guardsmen's chainsword. Attacks were made, attacks were dodged, Regeneration wasn't triggered. These things don't have dodge or parry trained, so plan on me using All out attacks or swift attacks, since they have Furious assault. Better to get two attacks than only one and a like 1% chance to dodge. Also firesight, you're stunned, so no need to post this round, I'll control Vault and his attacking of either you or Airica. I kind of like the idea of the minions beating on each other.  Pink Star: pain leech Red star: blood beast Red Circle: Cully Pink Circle: Yeseul Orange circle: Pan Blue Circle: Tess Yellow Circle: Rodan Orange Triangle: Vault Pink Triangle: Airica Ini: Cully: Yeseul: Painleech: 31/35 (AOA, no reaction this turn) Pan: (-10 all tests. Prone, Stunned) Rodan: (-10 all tests, Disorder test after battle) <---- we are here! Vault: (ERROR) Tess: Aricia: bloodbeast: Proposed house ruleEveryone weigh in on the following in your next post, or the OOC thread. In reviewing the Multiple arms trait, I find it kind of contradictory. The entry basically says that for each pair of arms, a character can make one additional melee attack. Then the next sentence says, "Note that a creature still requires two weapon wielder (melee) to make multiple attacks the same turn." That seems to contradict the rest of the entry about getting multiple attacks for each set of arms. So I propose the following clarification: "When a creature with multiple arms attacks in melee, it can make an additional number of attacks equal to its MA value divided by 2 to the same target or adjacent targets. These additional attacks will be of the same type and have the same modifiers as the original attack. If a creature with Multiple arms has the two weapon wielder (melee) talent, it may instead make a number of attacks equal to its full MA value." If this clarification is accepted by the group, it will apply to the blood beast's attacks, as well as any other multiple arms in the future, including players if any of you get extra arms from the gods.
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Nov 11, 2016 16:24
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Pan blinks his eyes and recovers from the sudden sight of the spawn. From his vantage point on the ground he sees that Vault's eyes are red and he is staring at Airica. ++IFF capability overloaded. IFF restarting. Activate Extinction protocol until restart++ Pan thinks his position on the ground has fooled Vault into thinking he is dead. Rodan brings his flamer up and flicks on the pilot light, using his psychic powers to direct the burst of flame towards Painleech. The beast is immediately engulfed in flames, though the being is so far from the ordinary it seems to not notive the flames, or perhaps because it is a creature of Slaanesh, it actually enjoys the sensation, though that doesn't stop its unholy flesh from singing a little. Next he opens up one of his warp vortexes underneath the Blood Beast, but the creature keeps its ground. Tess extends her hands, and a trio of black orbs engulfed in ethereal smoke jump from her fingertips, parting the fire on the Painleech and impacting its body. The three bolts impact the beast, though if they caused any harm to it, it does not show. Vault charges Airica, but all he really does is sort of bump into the acolyte. The bump seems to jar his programming since his vox grille crackles and broadcasts ++IFF functions restored. Scanning. [UNKNOWN ENTITY] observed. Processing. Life forms marked "friendly' engaging [UNKNOWN ENTITY] algorithms tagging [UNKNOWN ENTITY] as "hostile"++ With the threat of a nasty Vault out of the way, Airica takes aim at the Blood Beast and fires. The strike lands true, and the beast cries out in pain and turns one of its eyes on the acolyte. It runs forth from the center of the elevator, its movements not even slowed by the warp vortex around it. It stops just short of Airica and Screams at the acolyte. Blood dripping from its maw as opposed to drool.  Pink Star: pain leech Red star: blood beast Red Circle: Cully Pink Circle: Yeseul Orange circle: Pan Blue Circle: Tess Yellow Circle: Rodan Orange Triangle: Vault Pink Triangle: Airica Ini: Cully: <--- we are here Yeseul: Painleech: 28/35 (AOA, no reaction this turn, Flame quality to attacks) Pan: (-10 all tests. Prone) Rodan: (-10 all tests, Disorder test after battle) Vault: snapped out of it. Tess: Aricia: bloodbeast:29/35 4m from vault, tess, and Pan -20 to BS, +20 to WS to hit Notes: I've always interpreted the "immunity from fear" from From Beyond to mean that anyone with it does not have to make the willpower test when on fire to avoid running around like an idiot. So basically since being on fire only does 1d10 damage and the Painleech has TB of 12, it is just going to take it, though now it's melee attacks have the flame special quality, enjoy Cully and Yeseul! Blood beast easily passed toughness to avoid going prone, and then rolled a loving 03 to get out of the vortex range. Airica did a lot of damage thanks to felling and one extra dice from accurate, so the blood beast is focused on taking her out. Also, these two have a lot of toughness, and the Blood Beast has 6 armor on top of that, so, uh, you need to do at least 13 wounds to overcome the armor, bloodbeast it is 19 wounds with no AP. So good luck. [/i]
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Nov 20, 2016 21:18
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Cully rips into the immolated beast, causing a roar that sounds more like pain than pleasure to erupt from it. Meanwhile Yeseul makes a more calculated strike than her enraged comrade next to her, which causes some actual injury this time. The beast smiles at Cully, at least from some of its mouths, and flails its one large, almost obscene tentacle at the Cadian. However the Cadian demonstrates that he does have some sword skills other than rip and tear, and deftly knocks the appendage to the side with his chainsword. Pan remains on the ground while Rodan attempts to harness the Immaterium against it's denizens. The Warp fights back however, and assaults both his mind and his body. Vault's IFF programming directs him to intercept the Blood Beast, which it does, though being nothing more than a glorified suitcase, it cannot hit the warp spawn. The wall between the Immaterium and the physical realm was already weak in this spot. The presence of the Spawn and residual psychic scarring from all the previous spawn that fought in this location eroded at the veil. Then the repeated pulling of the warp from Rodan and Tess had acted like the blow of thunder hammers against a leaking dam, until Tess finally fractured it and the leak became a flood. Daemonic voices flood the area around, demanding their souls. However comingled in those voices is one that Tess and those who hear recognize: Xanaroch. "We are coming pets, don't die until I get there, I wish to taste of your souls before your new Gods devour them.!" Despite the grim display, the extra power from the Warp channels into the assault from Tess, and a barrage of pure warp energy hits the Spawn, one hit after another. A sickening sound is heard as the warp energy cooks off eyes that the more mundane fire was not harming. Arica cowers, expecting the Blood beast to ignore Vault, but it doesn't. It clumsily swipes at the servitor, but the Machine God is protecting Vault, as no attack lands. Just then, the familiar sound of a Jump Pack is heard, and everyone, including the two spawn, look up to the sky to see Inquisitor Whitehall soaring into the air, carrying Xanaroch. She drops the Daemonhost as she glides over the spawn, and lands on the other side. She quickly draws her Evicerator Chainsword and points one gauntlet at the beast. "I have lost enough to creatures of the warp, I loose no more!"  Pink Star: pain leech Red star: blood beast Black Star: xanaroch White Circle: Whitehall Red Circle: Cully Pink Circle: Yeseul Orange circle: Pan Blue Circle: Tess Yellow Circle: Rodan Orange Triangle: Vault Pink Triangle: Airica Ini: Cully: In melee with pain leech (ganging up) <--- we are here Yeseul: In melee with pain leech (ganging up) Painleech: 2/35 (AOA, no reaction this turn, Flame quality to attacks) Pan: (-10 all tests. Prone) Rodan: (-10 all tests, Disorder test after battle) Vault: In melee with blood beast Tess: Aricia: bloodbeast:32/35 in melee w/ vault, xanaroch, Whitehall. AOA no reaction) Xanaroch Inquisitor Whitehall Notes: Rodan can use his half action this turn and be able to act next or whatever. Also don't cry around about the pyromancy just yet. It has plenty of uses. I will let you acquire the pyromancy powers from Dark Heresy 2, including Molten Beam. Which does 1d10+5+ 3x(PR) damage, with a pen of 2xPR, AND melta. Still wouldn't help here that much, but not every enemy is going to be a heavily toughnessed up son of a bitch like these guys. Though we can discuss it after this battle. Also your former boss and her/it's boss is here to join in.
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Dec 3, 2016 01:00
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waiting on a bonelorde post to at least do through painleech, though jolinaxas and firesight are appreciated so I can do a full round. If this drags much longer I might just have to hand wave the rest of the fight , though I would rather keep going until one of them is dead at least. This was intended to be the first "boss battle " so far.
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Dec 12, 2016 23:24
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With the addition of Whitehall and Xanaroch, the battle turns rather quickly. Cully and Yeseul quickly finish the painleech off. The psychic barrage from Tess had left it in a rather sorry state, and the two swordsmen, one brutal and one graceful, quickly dice the horrendous mass of flesh and chaos into quite a few pieces. With one out of the way, the Blood Beast really didn't stand much more of a chance. With an entire elite acolyte cell, Inquisitor, and daemonhost all raining fury down upon it, the Bloodbeast lives up to its name, and falls into wet chunks all over he floor, with more blood than physically possible drenching everyone around upon its death. Yeah, the Painleech was pretty much dead, and I wasn't going to drag out another how many rounds just to fight the bloodbeast; especially since neither one managed to land a hit on any of you up to this point. With the creatures dead, the local primitives are rather awestruck by not only your display, but also by the presence of Xanaroch. No longer in a mood to play around, Whitehall stomps around the camp trying to find the control panel for the lift. It takes some searching, but she finds it in the old pump control room, which is now the audience chamber of their leader. She has Pan explain to the chieftain how to use it, and gathers everyone up onto the lift. Once everyone is aboard the chieftain pushes the button, and the lift begins its long, slow ascent to the top hive proper. Once the lift makes its way to the top, the acolytes find themselves in a large room that likely was some sort of warehouse in the past. Now it is some macabre holding area. The space is full of various different sizes of cages, all of them with dried blood and rust on them. It seems that someone has been taking chaos spawn and other beasts and using the primitives below as a dumping ground for ages. Once outside of the warehouse, the group is met with quite a sight. The hive has been slowly reclaimed by the jungle. The tiered pyramid before them looks like a description of the ancient garden of Babylon run wild. Large vines as long as a warhound titan in tall hang from the side of decaying buildings. Trees the size of baneblades shoot up through the rockcrete, like the fingers of some heretical nature deity trying to punch its way through the structures of man. Rodan and Tess once again open their minds to the warp, and find the same intense foreboding and despair coming off of one of the taller intact buildings in the upper hive. The group start on their trek. Given the size of the Spire and the fact that most of the thoroughfares are overgrown with vegetation, the going is slow at first. Whitehall and Cully take the lead, each one carving apart the overgrowth with their chain weapons. They work together as a good team, even though they do their work in silence as the total hate the Guardsman has for his Inquisitor hangs just as thickly in the air as the various jungle gnats. Yeseul and Tess take up the middle along with the underlings Airica and Vault while Pan, Rodan, and Xanaroch take rearguard. As they make their way, Xanaroch turns to the two stragglers (FOR PAN AND RODAN ONLY) "You two are the most reasonable of this group, at least as it comes to me. Pan, you have been more dedicated than any other than Whitehall in freeing your Interrogator, having delved into knowledge better left forgotten. And dear sweet Rodan, well, we both know that even if this errand were to succeed, you are just as damned as I." The creature smiles and gently pokes Rodan, and he hears the whispers from his chaotic cyst wax for a moment before Xanaroch continues. "We are in danger. I do not know what we are walking into, but it is not what we expect. Whitehall said that we are heading to the lair of an Inquisitor who captures my kind in daemonhosts and daemon weapons, correct? If that were the case, I would be able to hear their voices, calling out for release. Instead I only sense a great well of Chaotic energy. I hear no voices. Whatever we are walking into is not what your Inquisitor expects. We need to leave, but you both know that she will not let us. We she will lead this group to our doom. Yeseul, Tess, and Cully could be made to see reason, but not if it comes from my mouth. especially Cully. You must be my agent. Convince the others that this errand is suicide. Then we will have to turn on Whitehall united. She will slaughter all of us if we are not united." The beast falls to silence, and falls even further back behind them as rearguard. Was their a grain of truth to the daemon's words, or is it just trying to deceive them? As night approaches the group finds itself about a third of the way up the hive. As they have ascended during the day the vegetation has gotten thinner, it is the hope of Whitehall that they can make up time tomorrow, but decides to rest for the night. The group take shelter in a small Imperial shrine designed for the workers of the lower hive to congregate in. Dry and brittle bones are found scattered about, and are quickly moved away some some of the pews can be turned into places to sleep. Okay, I am going to give everyone here a bit of a chance to just, you know, talk and interact now that the fight is over. I'll try to update next Wednesday or Thursday before Christmas moving on, assuming there isn't any developments here as it relates to your goals.
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Dec 17, 2016 18:34
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still giving folks a chance to fluff post, especially firesight. Will be able to update next Wednesday due to holidays. Also Dachshundofdoom you owe me a roll for a mental disorder. Give me the WP and if you fail I'll roll the actual disorder.
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Dec 22, 2016 23:23
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Now that they finally had a moment to rest, Tess settles in and focuses her mind on the location that had spent the better part of a day fighting towards. The previous times she scryed it, they were either high above in a fast moving vessel, or after having battled chaos spawn. Ready for the onslaught of horrific images that assaulted her the first time, she delves into the warp and focuses her third sight towards it. She is immediately greeted by the horrible images of suffering and death, but steeled for it, she pushes it to the side (well as much as you can) and then focuses on the source. What she finds does not startle her, it is what she does not find that does. Having spent enough time around Xanaroch, she knows what the warp signature of a daemonhost is. You can sense their infernal will radiating from their body, a constant stream of half-heard whispers that you could almost get lost in. Here, she hears nothing. She sees the images, and she senses a concentration of Chaos energy, but a location that supposedly is home to an unknown number of trapped daemonhosts and daemon weapons should sound like a grand assembly of warp-touched voices. She doesn't know exactly what to make of it. The closest she can come to pinpointing a prior source like this is the sensation she gets for that split second on a ship when the rift to the Immaterium is opened and right before the Gellar Field comes to life. It could be an actual Chaos rift, or perhaps some artefact full of chaos energy but not inhabited by a daemon. As Rodan finishes his speech, the sound of a clearing throat can be heard from the far end of the church. Behind the Altar stands Whitehall having come back from the rectory where she had spent her time performing the binding rituals that would keep the daemonhost confined to that room while everyone slept. Whitehall has her Evicerator drawn and in her hand, though it is not in a hostile stance, she is leaning on it like a wise sage overburdened with time and knowledge leaning on a staff. "I expected it would be Cully as the muscle, and maybe Yeseul as the brains, but I never expected anything like this from you Rodan. The Mechanicus are usually known for the skill in programmed obedience. Thor's blood, I've never heard you this coherent before." Whitehall then does two things. First she reaches into a pouch on her armor and pulls out her shuttle keys and throws them in the middle of the shrine. Secondly, she puts her hand to her Rosarius and the air around her shimmers as her power field activates. "I am not surprised at this, and I do not blame any of you. We had lost so much, and I think the loss of Jenny was the last nail in the coffin for many of you. I thought you all strong of conviction, but I see in the end, you all finally falter. Perhaps I am to blame in some of this. Perhaps I did not pick acolytes with the strength to see this through. Maybe I picked acolytes that were already close to walking the Traitor's path and having you near a creature such as Xanaroch was too much temptation. I guess we will never know as it relates to that." She takes one step closer to the altar and runs her free hand over its surface, clearing away centuries of dust that surround her like a dull mist in the still, dead air. "I thought my pleas to your loyalty after Cully's outburst before we left would have quieted your traitorous rumblings, but I was wrong. Despite what the simple mind of Mr. Cully thinks, you are not bound to me. Those of you who feel my errand is foolish, I release you! i release you from all service and duty owed to the Inquisition, but I cannot absolve you of your sin of betrayal; that you will have to make penance for on your own. There on the floor is the keys to the lander in the jungle at the base of the hive. If you wish to go, then you may leave. The facility above has to have some sort of transport out we can take once Banca is free. If your treachery is based on fear or self preservation you now have nothing to fear. However know that while you were in Gunmetal city and I did my investigations, I also put into place a contingency. I revoked all your Inquisitorial authority for this very situation. You will find your own marks of office as my throne agents are null and void. Any and all assets such as safe houses, bank accounts, and contacts you have by virtue of your service to me. If you leave, you are truly on your own." She seems to be almost invigorated as she speaks, and she how hefts her sword onto her shoulders. "For those who think this a suicide mission, then let me have my suicide. If death is to greet me at the summit here, then let Banca and I meet that death there, not here. Take the keys and flee, and I shall never see any of you again. If, however, your soul is already lost and you feel your only course of option is to lust for my death at your own hands, know that I will not go quietly, and I will show none of you no mercy." Okay, so decision time. You have a few options at your disposal, plus as usual, the typical whatever you come up with. 1. We have come this far: Back down from your plans and see this through. If the group elects this option, I'll essentially GM fiat/ignore any further attempts to take Whitehall or Banca/Xanaroch's lives' until you reach the peak. 2. Fly, you fools: You can take Whitehall up on her offer and grab the shuttle keys and leave. Of course you do not get to know what happens, and Whitehall will keep Xanaroch; so if you all wanted to have a daemonhost friend when you turn to full Saturday morning cartoon villain, you have to get your own. 3.This ends here: You can all opt to fight Whitehall and finish her off. You've all spent enough time with her that you pretty much know a lot about her fighting style and equipment. She is encased in Best-Quality Sororitas power armor with quite a few enhancements, including auto med injectors. On top of that her Symbol of office acts as a power field with a Protection rating of 50 and an overload on a 1. Her weapons are an Evicerator two handed chainsword with toxic drip dispensers, a best quality las carbine, and a wrist mounted twin linked bolt pistol, as well as a wrist mounted power blade. She tends to use the las carbine and bolt pistol to engage enemies until she gets into melee. At that point she deploys the power blade and uses that to parry, while then striking with the evicerator. Obviously she needs two hands for the evicerator, so she can never attack with both the sword and power blade in one turn. She is, however, a rather skilled duelist who can parry multiple times, and is a master of counter attacks. Your best bet would be to try and keep her at range, or engage her in melee from multiple sources. 4. There must be another way: maybe with some of the knowledge Tess just acquired, or something else, you can talk Whitehall out of this? If you are going to fall, falling with your Inquisitor would be a big boon. Maybe she can be convinced that the best source of information on how to unbind Banca isn't among some radical Inquisitor, but among the actual lost and the damned? If you opt for this, I will not have such a large decision based entirely on a Charm/Deceive dice roll, but a successful test will cause her to join you. A failure means that your actual typed words need to convince her. Any charm test will be at a -30 since she isn't trusting you folks. A deceive is a -20. And by deceive, I do not mean to to gain her trust for a surprise attack, I mean instead telling a like to get her to back down, like "Pan knows of another way to free Banca that will work" or some other lie.
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Jan 2, 2017 17:02
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Inquisitor Whitehall stands motionless while Tess, Yeseul, and Rodan try to talk some sense into her. Halfway through Yeseul's plea, Whitehall looks over her shoulder toward the room in which the daemonhost was currently bound, and sighs. She leans even more heavily on her sword, and the most keen eyed among you spot a single tear roll down her cheek. After a moment she straightens up, as though the weight of the world has literally been taken off of your shoulders. "You're right, all of you are right. I've been going about this all on my own, assuming the lot of you were behind me. A great Inquisitor uses their acolytes not as just resources, not just assets, but actual allies; and in my drive to cure Banca, I have forgotten that. I lack the ability to read the Warp as you do Tess; if you say what awaits us up there is not what it appears, I will have faith in that. If whatever it is is not a prison for daemons as my sources have led me to believe, then Slone will not have the answers I seek. I had promised myself I would never become a Radical; that no threat posed by our enemies would be so great a risk to use their own artifice against them. To fight fire with fire would see humanity burn." Whitehall steps out from behind the altar and sits on the edge of the raised platform. While she makes no move, her stance is that of an affectionate elder beckoning her grandchildren to gather around. "But here I am not defeating our enemy. The daemonhost there is not so powerful that all of us combined would not defeat it. I am not fighting our Enemy here, I'm doing something totally different, and perhaps another approach is required. I relent to your wisdom, as twisted as it may be. The only ones that will have the knowledge of how to defeat this particular binding ritual and expel the daemon are those types that typically put it into place. Let us rest this night. Tomorrow we shall trace our steps out, and from there try to find our way to one who could help us." Well it happened. Bonelorde passed the test with like 3 DoS, Whitehall's opposed willpower was only one, so you successfully talked Whitehall into giving up her ways and try to turn to the Ruinous Powers. Everyone gains five infamy for this undertaking, as nudging an Inquisitor towards Ruin is a rather exceptional feat. Everyone also gets three corruption out of it, except for Bonelorde, who gets 6 corruption for actually being the one to pass the test to talk Whitehall down. Lastly, everyone gets 600 exp for completing this adventure. The next update is going to involve a rather large jump forward in time, I'm going to skip you actually tracking down a source of chaos knowledge and fast forward to you having found it. Everyone may make three infamy based acquisition tests. Avoid anything that is outright chaotic, as you're still in imperial space, but that will change sooner than later; feel free to make your own rolls in orokos. If anyone gets a mutation/gift from that 3 (or 6) corruption let me know, and I will roll the results. Once everyone posts their exp expenditures and acquisitions I will do the next update.
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Jan 13, 2017 19:19
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<WorkSight> woo <WorkSight> Werix: 3 corruption puts me at 10 <Werix> you aligned? <WorkSight> Unaligned but leaning Tzeentch First roll was 31, so shifting that up and down by infamy gets you 29-33 so darksoul, dimensional instability or emaciated. Second roll was 07, so that is a range of 5-9 which means animal hybrid(avian) or bestial(reptile) So pick one of the two rolls, then pick a mutation in the range. (pick 7, pick 7, pick 7, pick 7 ...)
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Jan 13, 2017 19:31
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Part I: Precipice of the Abyss Act III: How Far the Mighty Have Fallen. Misery loved company, but damnation needed it. John Connolly -Nine Months Later: Footfall Station: After Whitehall was persuaded to seek more non-traditional ways to deal with the Banca/Xanaroch situation, things moved at a rapid pace not seen in years by the acolytes. Whitehall called in every resource and contact she had to get even the most basic leads on Chaos cultists. The next seven months was a non-stop tour around the Calixis Sector. Free from the burden of acting rightly, Whitehall would order the capture and torture of those against whom even the smallest accusation of corruption was levied. None in the group could deny that scores of innocents died at their hands. Everyone was culpable. In all that time, only two things of note happened, and both at the same time. Whitehall had chased down a lead on a Chaos cult that infested some upper spire nobles on a hive world, and the lead was correct. However, another Inquisitor was also interested, and it resulted in you and Whitehall killing the Inquisitor's Interrogator and the acolytes the Interrogator was leading. As regrettable an occurrence as that may have been, the corrupted nobles provided the best lead they had yet. Under intense interrogation, the leader of this noble-led cult of Tzeentchian Conspirators revealed that none of them were really psykers; they had received what the leader referred to as "ritual stones" from a contact. These ritual stones were self contained rituals; all one had to do was shatter the stone, and the ritual would unfold. After more intense interrogation, the Leader revealed their source was a Rictus Valencia a Chaos Sorcerer of some power stationed out on Footfall Station in the Expanse. And so the group fled Imperial Space for Footfall, arriving two months later. The group finds itself at the Weasel's Twine, a boarding house in one of the less stable of chained asteroids in Footfall. They had rented one large room at the Twine, which the group has set up as their sleeping quarters and briefing room. The room had a neolithic feel, as the whole thing was roughly carved out of stone, with only the floor polished smooth to allow one to be barefoot. The artificial gravity was less that ideal, and every fifteen or so minutes the polarity temporarily shifts, causing everything to rise up a couple of centimeters before suddenly slamming down. Xanaroch was secured in one corner of the room, the now familiar temporary binding chains keeping the beast docile. Whitehall is at a table in the middle of the room. The last nine months had not been kind. Her skin has become pale and dark circles envelop her eyes. She has begun a rather nasty Lho habit, and has one in her hands nearly every hour of the day. The smoke from the Lho dances almost hypnotically in shifting gravity as she addresses those gathered, "So any ideas on how we track down the Rictus Valencia? i imagine we can't just go around asking for him by name."
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Jan 21, 2017 01:37
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Whitehall nods her head, "Do what you need to do. If you could locate the location of Rictus covertly that would be best, but we'll cut down half the station if need be. While Footfall is outside Imperial Space, it is still close enough to have a lot of loyalists that would be a trouble to us." Whitehall shakes her head and takes a long drag from her lho, "loyalists ... we are loyalists, you know what I mean. Those less flexible and dedicated to our cause." As the group leaves the room in the Twine, they all pass by Xanaroch. During the last nine months the daemonhost had been put through the ringer. While the group had not learned any ways to undo the ultimate ritual binding the daemon to their interrogator, they did learn quite a bit about other binding rituals. Whitehall had gotten very adept at adding and removing bindings as it suited her. The Inquisitor seemed to have been taking out quite a bit of aggression on the daemonhost. Whitehall had become convinced that while Banca is in there, and can be saved, that every time "Banca" has talked to them, it was just the daemon manipulating them. Xanaroch seemed to confirm that suspicion when Whitehall had bound it five times after the last time Banca begged for mercy and whipped it with scourges in its weakened state. Either Xanaroch had given up the charade, or Banca's ability to break through the daemon has weakened. Either way, the daemon sits with minor second level bindings on, its eyes covered and blindfolded. The acolytes fan out into the underworld of Footfall to do their work. Cully mostly sulks around; he doesn't have skills that would help Yeseul dig out a Chaos Sorcerer, but has nothing better to do besides find an Obscura den. Rodan and Tess ever the psychic pair, accompany Yeseul as she plies her way around the shadier parts of Footfall, trying to find sorcerers services. It isn't as hard as one would find. Footfall seems to be a destination for unsanctioned psykers, and many ply their trades reading omens for drunken ratings on shore leave. However, it doesn't take Yeseul long to find out that the truly heretical of psykers congregate in one of the abandoned asteroids called Cormack's Rest. Not only that, but one shifty psyker burned out on chems even says that Rictus tends to frequent a location called the Hall of Bones over in Cormack's Rest. After leaving their last stop on their way back to the Twine, Tess notices that the group is being followed by at least half a dozen individuals. Bulky long coats hide armor, most of them have their hands resting on their hips under the coat, likely on unseen weapons. Tess motions behind them. Rodan steps off into the shadows, ready to act. The only question now is how does the group respond. Okay, so you guys got all the rolls tonight. Yeseul rolled a 04 on inquiry, which is enough DoS to find out where your target is. Tess spots the mystery men behind you all, and Rodan also rolled a 04 on a stealth check to hide in the shadows. I'm not exactly going to treat this as a full on battle yet, depending on how you want to handle the situation, but if you do react with violence, Rodan will get a surprise on them for being hidden.
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Jan 29, 2017 06:55
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